Serie A Season Preview

Today marks the start of the new Italian season, there’s been a lot of changes in the league since last season, some good, some not so good.

Maybe the most notable one from an outsiders point of view, was the departure of Jose Mourinho to Real Madrid after doing what he does best, in waking up a sleeping giant, and get them winning again.
In his absence, the Internazionale board have signed up Rafa Benitez, who many believe needs Inter more than the club need him. He goes to the champions of Italy & Europe with the majority of the squad still intact with the up most of expectation, and a necessity to succeed and get his small militia of doubters, after his time at Liverpool, off his back.

Perhaps Benitez’s greatest task will be defending the Nerazzurri’s European title, not just for the sake of the clubs pride and his own head with the faithful. But because something will have to be done to make sure the Italian Coefficient doesn’t fall behind again after loosing its 4th spot to the German Bundesliga last season. With Sampdoria falling short of qualifying for the Champions League and with Roma & Juventus looking as far short of the rest of Europe’s elte as they do, the responsibility of Italys pride will fall heavily on the Spaniards shoulders.

Juventus have been the most active in revamping there squad, they’ve spent close to £41mil in bringing in Leonardo Bonucci to sit at the back beside Chiellini, back up goalkeeper Marco Storari, Marco Motta to slot in at right back, Aquilani to add a bit of option in the middle, and Milos Krasic and Pepe to add a bit of width to Del Neri’s rigid 4-4-2 formation. Although many have been quick to point out that the most exciting proposition for the old lady, is the thought that Diego and Felipe Melo will finally find their feet in the Italian game and, still, have the potential to be league winners for Juventus.

Roma on the other hand have had a challenging summer. After finishing a modest 2nd after pushing Inter for most the season, the club have found themselves stuck in a financial meltdown , after the bank finally losing patience with the owners, the Sensi family, over debts of more than £300m and team president, Rosella Sensi, agreed to hand over just under 49% of the club.
Positives for Roma are that they’ve managed to retain most of their squad from last season and have managed to sign Burdisso from Inter Milan, one of the keys to their success last season. The notorious Adriano has also been signed up( whether or not with Ranieri’s blessing) who could prove to offer some fire power up front for the capital side. Roma are probably considered favourites to challenge Inter for the top spot although Ranieri’s main aim will be to make sure Juventus don’t pip them to that 2nd spot.

Milan’s pre season seemed to be a similar story to the solemn tone that’s stuck with the club over the past few years. Before signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a spectacular loan move, the most i Rossoneri fans had to look forward too, was the arrival of Kevin-Prince Boateng on loan from Genoa( who offered to buy the player for Milan because they couldn’t afford the transfer fee) and 34 year old centre back Mario Yepes from Chievo. Despite the arrival of said players, the club haven’t changed too much with the squad that finished outside the top four, and a similar story can be said of Milan’s dependence on an out of form and unfit Ronaldinho. The clubs season will depend on how well the two signings can perform for the club and if Ronaldinho does in fact show some signs of his former self.

The middle of the table looks like the most likely spot for some entertaining change. The club with probably the best chance of breaking old habits in Italy are Genoa. After the arrivals of the Portugal goalkeeper Eduardo, the Schalke full-back Rafinha, midfield anchor man Miguel Veloso, striker Luca Toni and the centre-back Andrea Ranocchia (on loan from Inter), as well as not having to worry about a European campaign like there rivals, Palermo and Napoli. The club have bolstered there ambitions of fighting amongst the best.
Fiorentina will be looking to enjoy a comfortable season under new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, while two of the most exciting buys outside of Turin or Milan are Brazilian all round midfielder, Hernanes’ move to Lazio, and Giovinco’s loan move to Parma where he will try to earn back the promise that surrounded him before falling from Juventus’ first team plans.

At the bottom of the table, there’s little surprises expected of the newly promoted sides, all three have been quiet in the transfer market with no real intention of strengthening their already weak squads. Put along side the usual stragglers of Chievo, Catania, and Cagliari all having new managers and you have a 6 team battle to see who can keep there heads above the water the longest.

Along the way we’ll see the introduction of fan ID cards to help minimise fan troubles and hopefully a continued rise in attendances(last seasons was the highest since 1992) from last seasons, could see the SerieA slowly climbing its way back to its past glory.